


Baby Bird

by MythGirl02



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Short One Shot, Sort Of, its stuff like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29848770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythGirl02/pseuds/MythGirl02
Summary: Toko hated the writing process.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Baby Bird

**Author's Note:**

> ...yeah, I don't even know anymore

It never had to be the Next Great Novel. Of course it didn’t, since Toko knew that logically some novels would test better with different audiences. Some of her older books might end up more popular than her newer ones; the opposite could be true. There was no way of knowing until she released each book, still not perfect in her opinion, into the world.

Sometimes it was the little things that made her wish she didn’t publish her novels at all. Maybe a character reacted to something in a way that they hadn’t before. Maybe the plot wrapped up too fast. Maybe the relationship didn’t have as much chemistry as she thought. Maybe readers would pick everything apart and find inconsistencies she didn’t even notice. She’d heard it all. As much as her books were praised, they were also torn apart, and she was her worst critic.

Honestly, half the time she entered a project, she had herself convinced that she would never let the novel out. Nobody would even know its title or its characters, and she wouldn’t be attached. By the time she was done writing, at least her editor knew about it. Then her publisher. Then her publisher was networking and before she knew it, it was out of her hands and into the public’s.

Nothing about her projects was ever perfect, from the half-assed lines scribbled on loose pages to notes written in the margins of the printed manuscript. Sometimes in her handwriting. Sometimes not. Even then, the more critical notes were in her own handwriting.

She always avoided news of her novels and never went on any book tours or publicity events. Even starting out, she didn’t need them, and she didn’t want them, anyway. More chances for the public to tear away the onionskin covering all the imperfections. No thank you.

She pushed the manuscript of her latest novel aside, tossing her now-empty red pen in the garbage. Now that the exhausting deal was done, she could put it out of her mind until her editor was done with it. Then there would be more frustration with the suggested changes, things that would change the entire course of the novel. That was what happened nearly every single time since her first novel. It would’ve been easier to go right to publishing, but as much as she was loathe to admit it, her editor did catch stupid mistakes that she must’ve made while writing late into the night. That was why editors were included in the process to begin with.

Then there were the times that her novel looked better in one form than another. It looked better longhand, with all the notes in the margins; it looked better published, with the crisp, clean pages; it looked better in the word processor, with no squiggles telling her the grammar or spelling was off. It varied depending on the project, and she hardly ever was satisfied with it sitting on her shelf. She would always take her pen to them, marking them up with the should-have-beens, the character notes and scenes that weren’t included and that she didn’t even think of before publishing. She should’ve.

She eyed her manuscript, itching to pull it closer and try to find those should-have-beens before it was too late. Maybe it already was, she had no way of knowing. Now was the time to send it out, kick it out of the nest and let it fly or die. Though, in her experience, none of her baby birds ever died.

Whatever. Either way, it would be out of her mind until the next manuscript was ready to be sent out. Then the cycle would start again.


End file.
